Volume 50 Issue 6 - June 2012 : Others

 

She lives in the suburbs of Francistown close to the city centre.  Her day starts at 5am ith a 4km jog, followed by a brief workout in her home gym, all the reason why she exudes the energy that most people her age can only dream about.

As Kutlwano crew arrives at her home, she is busy and meticulously trimming her beautiful flowers.  A look around the yard reveals a variety of beautiful flowers and with deep green and widespread lawn providing a lush background, the scene is a paradise, to say the least.

After greetings and an obvious question about her well kept yard, she says: “I love trees and flowers. I like to make things grow and in the same way I like to make people grow into more challenging areas of life because growth is important.”

She is none other than well-known former Tatitown Customary Court President, Ludo Margaret Mosojane, who is also the wife of the equally well-known ad retired High Court judge, Justice John Mosojane.  They both have been blessed with four children - three females and a male.

MmaMosojane, as she is affectionately known around the city of Francistown, says gardening to her is more than just a hobby. It is also a way of coping with stress and the difficult situations that characterise life.

“Whenever I am going through a difficult situation I always feel refreshed after doing some gardening,” she says smilingly while at the same time sprucing up some plants.

Immediately after completing her O’ Levels at St Joseph’s college in 1971, the former traditional leader says she worked for Barclays Bank Botswana between 1972 and 1975.

She then joined the civil service where she remained from 1997 until November 2011, when she finally retired at the age of 60.

She describes her time in the public service as tough but a pleasing experience, particularly because she dealt mostly with reconciling married couples, as well as addressing issues of gender-based violence in society.

MmaMosojane is well known for her dedication to gender equality. In fact, anyone who has been so lucky as to attend her sermons, talks of a woman who never forgets to encourage both males and females to work together as human beings, despite their physical difference.

She says her work as a customary court president included addressing serious issues of gender based violence. MmaMosojane recalls that in her hay days as court president, Botswana had a serious problem of HIV/AIDS especially because, back then, there was no free Anti-Retro Viral therapy for the infected.

However, as she fought the HIV/AIDS scourge, she was equally fighting for parity for both men and women because even men have been oppressed for a long time, she says.

She says it is a reality that most Botswana laws favour women. For instance, men do not enjoy the same rights with women in terms of who owns the children, she says with apparent seriousness on her face.

The retired traditional leader also says the issue of access to and living with children must be fair because men also pay maintenance fees on regular bases.  They also pay for damages as such they must also be allowed to live with their children if they so wish.

“Nowadays it is common for women to deliberately trap men with children especially when such men are well-off,” she warns sternly, adding that the issue of child bearing must not be used as a trap hence there must be a common understanding between both parents.

However, heritage issues still remain a primary source of conflict in society.  Some of the issues she has had to deal with whilst in the public service involved uncles or aunts who swindled children whose parents had died out of their inheritance. “These were difficult cases but I always found a solution,” says MmaMosojane.

On politics, MmaMosojane takes a leaf from US President, Barak Obama’s book that: “My critics told me, you are smart, educated and have a good job, but why join a dirty game like politics?”

Just like Obama, she says people tried to discourage her from joining politics though there was a lot to learn from politics such as working with people of different characters and backgrounds.

During her prime, she says she was an active member of the Botswana People’s Party (BPP), and even served as deputy mayor in the 1984-1989 then Francistown Town Council. 

She remembers the time the BPP dominated the council, “except that the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) used to strategise through specially elected councilors so that they could out-number us in the council.”

One outstanding politician in the BPP line up whom she loved to work with, was the late Phillip Matante, she remembers, saying Matante at the time was the Member of Parliament for Francistown which was then a single constituency.

Since her retirement from active duty last year, MmaMosojane now dedicates three days to her guidance and counselling work, and two days to her work as chairperson of the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) Francistown branch.

She says she has been an active member of YWCA since 1992, serving as its national chairperson between 1992 and 995.  She says during her time as national chairperson, she represented the association locally, regionally and internationally.

She attended Korea International Women’s Summit, Norway International Women’s Council, Finland Strategic Planning Council for Gender Equality and Namibia Regional Women’s meeting, among others.

“YWCA also funded me to attend training in New York for HIV/AIDS prevention.

Apart from her contribution to society, she learnt important lessons of perseverance. “I have two children who have been sick for a long time so much that it taught me to persevere, never give up and put my focus completely on God,” says MmaMosojane who is a devout Christian.       

From her seemingly busy schedule, there is a lighter side of MmaMosojane. “I have a passion for cooking especially traditional Kalanga dishes. Cooking for me is a way of meditation because I am so much in love with my kitchen,” she says with a warm smile.

Noticeable paintings and portraits that line up the passage walls in her mansion, and in both the kitchen and sitting room reveal MmaMosojane’s other interests - she loves creative art.

“This is my daughter, her name is Mandipa Mosojane and she lives here with me,” she introduces her daughter whose looks are a reflection of her mother.

MmaMosojane has love for writing and reading. “I love to write and have a column in The Voice newspaper where I write about the traditional Setswana wisdom. It is a well known fact that Setswana or customary laws have not been written about, so this gives us an opportunity to write about traditional values, customs and the way of life in our society,” says MmaMosojane.

 

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